PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr CHAFFEY (Parkes) (19:14): Our country is in bad shape, and it hurts. Australia is in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis affecting just about every Australian across this great country. People are frustrated.

They're getting desperate and, understandably, they're very angry. We are at the point where we are taxed not only on our income but on our hard earned savings, on our super, on any investments people might be lucky enough to have and on any money they might make when they sell these investments. Inflation continues to rise.

Rents are rising. Power bills are rising. Food seems to cost more at the supermarket with every single shop.

Over the past year food prices have gone up 3.2 per cent, health costs have risen 3.8 per cent and education costs have gone up 4.8 per cent. It costs more to insure your car, and it costs more to fill up your car. I don't know where it is that the members of this Albanese Labor government are walking, driving or shopping, or where they're talking to people, but they seem unable to hear what all regional Australians are saying to me.

Let me tell you what I'm hearing on the ground. A teacher from my electorate in Parkes has written to me about the strain she is seeing in her school community: These financial stresses are not just abstract concerns; they are visible in the day-to-day lives of our students. We see it in their conversations, in occasional lateness to school, in the contents—or absence—of lunchboxes, and in the challenges some families face in maintaining school uniforms.

Then there's the 68-year-old woman from Brewarrina who has had to go back to full-time work because she can no longer afford to pay her rent. In Tomingley, a farmer has written describing energy price rises as 'another kick in the guts'. Every day, in every community, I am made aware of people who are struggling, and it's apparent that, in living memory, times may never have been this tough.

Interest rates are at a 15-year high, which, combined with the rising cost of everything, has made rents and buying a house out of reach for many Australians. While hard workers and those who have made this country are hurting, this Albanese Labor government continues to spend and spend. Government spending is at a 40-year high, outside the pandemic, and debt is over $1 trillion.

And yet our seniors, in the often modest homes they've paid off through scrimping and saving while raising a family, are told they must tighten their belts even more—that they must buy margarine instead of butter, drop their private health insurance, catch one of the buses that simply don't exist in regional communities instead of filling up their car, or, if they have to drive, pump their tyres up a little bit more and get rid of the roof racks.

Air is free. Small-business owners are being told, yes, they can pay more tax. It is getting harder and harder to help the next generation get ahead.

In other words, do as I say, not as I do. The people Australians trust to manage our country are clearly failing, and it's time for a change. The Nationals, in a coalition, are the only people who care about regional Australians and who are listening.

We have a plan. We have a way forward. It involves lowering taxes, cheaper power, more sensible migration and putting Australians first.

It involves common sense. We will even establish a Future Generations Fund to pay down Labor's trillion dollar debt and invest in long-lasting nation-building infrastructure in roads, ports, energy and water. This government needs to stand up and take responsibility today.

It needs to account for the dreams it has taken away from everyday Australians.